The Director of Industrial Relations is charged with responsibility for labor management, national negotiations, mechanization, safety and health for all divisions of the union, and the administration of the collective bargaining agreement.

There’s more to being a progressive union than achieving and enforcing a contract — and that’s where the Human Relations Department comes in. Our programs and benefits inspire members to participate in the union and give them a sense of inclusion, contribution, and ownership.

The Maintenance Craft is a diverse and complex division of the APWU. In addition to the three national officers who work at the union's headquarters in Washington, DC, representation is provided by nine Maintenance National Business Agents (NBAs) and three all-craft NBAs.

The Motor Vehicle Craft is composed of APWU members who transport mail and maintain postal vehicles, and includes MVS Clerks, who work in Vehicle Maintenance Facilities and in Transportation Departments in mail processing plants.

The Support Services Division represents APWU bargaining unit members at Information Technology/ Accounting Service Centers, Operating Services facilities, Mail Equipment Shops and Material Distribution Centers, as well as professional nurses employed by the Postal Service. The Division also includes APWU-represented workers who are employed in the private sector, including mail haul drivers and Mail Transport Equipment Service Center employees.

The Northeast Regional Coordinator is responsible for union activity in parts of New York and New Jersey, and Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The Western Region Coordinator is responsible for the union's activities in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and American Samoa, Guam and Saipan.

The Deaf/Hard of Hearing Task Force is a forum for APWU members to address their unique problems and concerns in the workplace, union, and society. Established in 1988 by an amendment to the APWU National Constitution, its goals include: better communication, better representation; better training, a better workplace, a better union, and building friendship.

APWU POWER (Post Office Women for Equal Rights) is the women’s committee within the American Postal Workers Union. It unites women, with their special concerns, yet works within the framework of the national APWU organization.

The APWU National Postal Press Association (PPA) provides APWU communicators with a wide range of assistance, information, and educational programs concerning the publication of union newsletters and media.

01/16/2019 - (This article first appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) Oct. 15 report proves what postal workers have been shouting for years – cuts to mail processing and service is not the answer to the challenges facing the Postal Service.

In 2011, the Postal Service embarked on a disastrous endeavor to close and consolidate more than two hundred mail processing facilities in an attempt to save money. In 2015, the Postal Service began the second part of its reckless cost-cutting program – called the Operational Window Change (OWC) – revising its First-Class Mail (FCM) service standards. These changes included the elimination of single-piece overnight FCM service and shifting some First-Class pieces from the two-day service standard to a three-day service standard, as well as additional closings and consolidations of processing plants.

The Postal Service claimed these changes would lead to savings of over $1.6 billion over the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years. But, according to a new audit report from the OIG, the results haven’t even come close to that.

Including the Service We Give to Our Country?

01/16/2019 - (This article first appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

By Vice President Debby Szeredy

Let’s talk about the facts. Here I am, a union postal worker. What will happen if I don’t step up and help mobilize my co-workers and my community to stop privatization?

The free market plan is to privatize any and all areas that are vital to the American public. We have seen how privatization affects us. Examples of privatization include: our health care system, water and sewer services, bus and transit systems, parking meters, tolls, roads and bridges, prison systems, mortgage and pay day loans, student loans, deregulation of fossil fuels that pollute our planet, and the money in politics (dark money) that helps to fund candidates who will work hard to privatize public services.

01/16/2019 - (This article first appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

In Dec. 2018, Senate Resolution 633 (S. Res. 633) achieved a majority of co-sponsors. This resolution expressed the need to keep the United States Postal Service as an independent establishment of the federal government and that it should not be sold to private corporations. The House of Representatives’ companion resolution, H. Res. 993, obtained a majority of co-sponsors in Oct. 2018.

A Grand Alliance

01/16/2019 - (This article first appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

The long-awaited report of President Trump’s Task Force on the future of the Postal Service was released Dec. 4, months after its original August deadline. While the task force stopped short of proposing an immediate, full-scale fire sale of the Postal Service, it’s no wonder the White House held the report until after the midterm elections – its recommendations would slow mail service, stop the Postal Service from innovating and would, indeed, privatize vast swaths of the Postal Service’s operations.

01/16/2019 - (This article first appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

On Dec. 4, 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department released the long-awaited report by the White House’s Task Force on the United States Postal System. The Task Force was created by an executive order issued on April 12, 2018. It was chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) also serving on the committee. This task force report followed a June 21 recommendation from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which called for the wholesale privatization of the USPS, i.e. selling it to private corporations.

01/16/2019 - (This article first appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of the American Postal Worker magazine)

By President Mark Dimondstein

“Bury your head in the sand” is a common saying based on the myth that when an ostrich senses danger, it buries its head, believing that if they do not see the danger, it does not exist.

Postal workers are facing great dangers from corporate, financial and political forces pulling the strings behind both the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposals of June 21 and the new White House Task Force report of Dec. 4 (See page 6 on the Task Force). Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending the threats do not exist will not work any better for us than for the ostrich.

01/15/2019 - On Jan. 15, President Dimondstein appointed – and the National Executive Board voted to confirm per the APWU National Constitution – Ron Suslak to the Northeast Region Coordinator position. The position became vacant with the recent retirement of John Dirzius.

Brother Suslak currently serves as the President of the Queens Area Local in New York and Vice-President of the NY State APWU.

“I welcome such a strong union leader to this position,” said Dimondstein. “The national leadership looks forward to working with Brother Suslak in the ongoing struggle to strengthen the APWU and workers’ rights.”

On Jan. 15, APWU officers and members protested with union sisters and brothers from the NALC, National Nurses United, Teamsters, the BCTGM (Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers) International Union, and SEIU outside the Canadian embassy. The “solidarity across borders” action supported our postal brothers and sisters in the Canadian Union of Postal Workers forced back to work by the Canadian government.

In late October, our postal brothers and sisters in the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) began rotating strikes across the country, their legal right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (part of the country’s constitution). They struck for a better contract from Canada Post, the country’s public mail operator.

CUPW demanded that Canada Post address workplace injuries – which have increased 43 percent over the last two years due to rising parcel volumes – and stronger pay and benefits for Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC), about 8,000 workers. CUPW also demanded the end to forced overtime, better job security, and stronger health and safety measures.